Retail Marketing – You may think Valentine’s day isn’t relevant to boosting your sales, but in 2020, people spent over $27 billion on that day. This year alone, the National Retail Federation reported Valentine’s Day spending of $23.9 billion! Not on the same level as 2020, but that’s HUGE considering the pandemic and crashing economy. Nothing beats the power of love indeed!
So, in the name of e-commerce, you have to seize this opportunity for the next holiday! To help you with that, we’ve put together some helpful tips to help you market your products successfully this coming Valentine’s Day.
Table of Contents
1. Get the Timing Right
Although over 20% of your prospects begin shopping just before January ends, many shoppers begin at the start of February and get busy buying until February 14. Majority of men make flower purchases closer to Valentine’s Day, while jewelry purchases are usually popular earlier in the month.
We suggest you make note of these market trends and utilize the data to come up with a sound strategy. For instance, if you sell flowers, give off promos a week before the 14th, when most buyers are looking for affordable flower shops and comparing prices.
On the other hand, if you are selling jewelry, push your campaigns during the end of January when most men are likely shopping for Valentine’s Gifts. Another thing to take note of when planning your strategy is to push your marketing efforts between February 6 to 12, the peak sales days for Valentine’s Day according to research.
2. Consider Gender Buying Trends
It’s also important to consider that women and men have different shopping behaviors. While most men only consider their significant other, women shop for family, friends, and even pets.
Because women tend to consider multiple people while buying gifts, they tend to opt for affordable products like chocolates and cards, spending just about $100 on average. Men, on the other hand, typically spend $250 or more on buying expensive items such as jewelry, clothes, and flowers. Essentially, your marketing strategy should be based on who your prospective buyers would be: women or men.
3. Offer a Valentine’s Day Gift Guide
You can also make use of a Gift Guide to advertise your offerings across social media and email campaigns. Here are some short tips when planning yours:
- First, list your product offerings by product category and pricing. You can even cluster them based on your prospects’ gender: one for women and one for men.
- Next, make a visual guide for your website’s landing page or blog post. These gift guides will make it easier for your customers to browse through your product offerings. You can even opt for free shipping promotions or discounts to make it more difficult for your prospects to look for another seller.
4. Come Up with a Social Media Contest
Spread brand awareness by hosting a social media contest. If you’re a small business, you can try a “Comment and Win” contest on Instagram or Facebook. This one’s pretty easy to manage and most importantly, it quickly encourages audience engagement.
By simply posting an appealing poster of the products you want to promote, you’ll reap hundreds of prospects by making your buyers tag a friend to win a free item. You can even save money by making your own valentine’s retail poster yourself with PosterMyWall. This is a great idea to increase your followers and get more eyes on your contest.
4. Design an Email Campaign
If you already have a lot of subscribers, you can remind them about your Valentine’s offers every end of January using an email campaign. With this, you can benefit from early shoppers and, at the same time, notify late shoppers about your latest product offerings for the holiday. Follow-up with another email to seize last-minute shoppers a week later.
5. Advertise Time-Sensitive Discounts on Selected Items
You can also boost your marketing strategy by offering limited discounts on selected items. Target your discounts to your premium products to motivate your customers and achieve a surefire earn for Valentine’s Day marketing 2023.
6. Create Product Bundles
Product bundling is also another driver of great customer traffic. At the same time, it can also help reduce production costs. You can make bundles of bath salts and lotions, hot choco and mugs, bracelets and make-up kits, or whatever creative bundles you think your prospects would want to purchase!
7. Initiate a Sales Event Promo
Sales promos are a great way to keep precious customers and encourage potential customers to buy your products. In fact, a survey found that about half of customers only purchase when a promotion is involved. You can offer discounts or free shipping on selected items to inspire your prospects to buy immediately.
Final Thoughts
Valentine’s Day isn’t just about sappy romance and dare nights – it’s a major consumer holiday that can potentially give your earnings a boost after a busy Christmas e-commerce shopping rush.
From sales promotions and email campaigns to social media contests, there are a lot of ways for you to market your products for the holiday. But the most important tip is to understand your target buyer’s behavioral trends and utilize that data to plan your Valentine’s Day marketing strategy.
